By TBHS | Posted: Wednesday December 12, 2018
The New Zealand Athletic Championships were held in Dunedin over three days from Friday 30 November to Sunday 2 December, an earlier date than previous years.
The weather over the weekend was sunny but very windy, which at times affected any records which were broken. TBHS had 13 athletes competing this year - seven juniors (four Year 9) and six seniors.
The results this year are the best we have ever had for many years. TBHS athletes won six medals and seven of the thirteen athletes made the top eight in New Zealand.
Standout athletes who gained medals were:
Ryan Bagrie: 1st - 1500m Junior Boys, winning by over 50 metres in a time of just over 4 min 8 sec. His performance in the 1500m was one of the best in the entire athletics meet. Ryan has a great future in the sport.
George Guerin: 2nd - Senior 2000m steeplechase, and semi-finalist in the Senior 800m
Thomas Valentine: 3rd - Senior Hammer
Dean Andrews: 3rd - Senior Javelin
Ben Sewell: 3rd - 300m Senior Hurdles and 3rd in the 110m Senior Hurdles, missing out on Silver by 0.06 seconds. Ben was also competitive in the Senior High Jump.
Other creditable performances were:
William Valentine 4th in the Senior Javelin and 5th in the Senior Discus. William also performed well in the Senior Shot Put
Quinn Motley 6th in the Junior Discus, was competitive in both the Junior Javelin and Shot Put
Jed Syme made the Semi Finals for the Junior 100m and 200m
Liam Johnston had two good performances in the Senior Hammer and the Senior Discus.
The four Year 9 Athletes performed very well against older Junior athletes: Saxon McNoe in the Triple Jump , Harry Schmack in the Long jump, Jackson Ross in the Discus and Reuben Bowen in the Long jump, High jump and Javelin.
This
year the results were personal best performances for most of the athletes. They
are all extremely talented and all of them should go a long way in this sport.
Next year, the National Athletics will be held in Wellington and I am confident
the results will be as good as this year.
